The world is loud right now.
There are so many messages,
so many rules,
Do this, they say.
Don't do that, they advise.
Amidst it all,
I've been drowning.
Going under
beneath the waves of heaviness,
of confusion,
of wanting to take it all away.
And the voices get even louder from the Church,
Come to our service online!
Don't stop meeting together!
People are throwing Bible verses around like candy
desperately trying to find an answer for this plague.
I think one thing we all have in common is this:
anxiety.
The plague finds us all back in our deepest trauma memories
and here we stand,
fighting the memories off,
fighting the fear off, trying to displace these feelings.
Running.
You and I,
we feel the same thing.
What if instead of sharing numbers and stats and hypothetical scenarios,
we shared our hearts with one another?
What if instead of judging those who went to the grocery store 7 times last week
or to buy plants for their garden
or to hike with a friend
we held one another up,
we praised them for keeping a schedule rather than staying in their bed,
we supported them for finding something new to love when the job they love has been taken away.
This plague will look different for everyone.
One of my friend lives in Bolivia and hasn't left her home in 3 weeks and is running out of food.
Another has built a garden and bakes bread every day.
Another signed up for a class and is fighting off the memories of depression.
The question I have been wrestling with for the past several weeks is this:
Can we sacrifice our physical health for our mental health?
Does one come before the other?
Or is it possible to find healing in even this?
There are so many messages,
so many rules,
Do this, they say.
Don't do that, they advise.
Amidst it all,
I've been drowning.
Going under
beneath the waves of heaviness,
of confusion,
of wanting to take it all away.
And the voices get even louder from the Church,
Come to our service online!
Don't stop meeting together!
People are throwing Bible verses around like candy
desperately trying to find an answer for this plague.
I think one thing we all have in common is this:
anxiety.
The plague finds us all back in our deepest trauma memories
and here we stand,
fighting the memories off,
fighting the fear off, trying to displace these feelings.
Running.
You and I,
we feel the same thing.
What if instead of sharing numbers and stats and hypothetical scenarios,
we shared our hearts with one another?
What if instead of judging those who went to the grocery store 7 times last week
or to buy plants for their garden
or to hike with a friend
we held one another up,
we praised them for keeping a schedule rather than staying in their bed,
we supported them for finding something new to love when the job they love has been taken away.
This plague will look different for everyone.
One of my friend lives in Bolivia and hasn't left her home in 3 weeks and is running out of food.
Another has built a garden and bakes bread every day.
Another signed up for a class and is fighting off the memories of depression.
The question I have been wrestling with for the past several weeks is this:
Can we sacrifice our physical health for our mental health?
Does one come before the other?
Or is it possible to find healing in even this?
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